SlideShare is Dead. Now what?

If you’ve been using SlideShare over the last few years, you probably realized not much has been happening there for a while. Not like it used to, anyway.

In a recent article, MarketingProfs declared SlideShare “all but dead.” Looking at the numbers cited in the article, I tend to agree. I still run a SlideShare ‘campaign’ now and then but never see the results I used to back in its heyday in 2014-2015.

The article doesn’t mention it, but I tend to believe SlideShare’s demise (in addition to its clunky, outdated platform) is due to its lack of incorporating video. Yes, I know its name is all about slides, but still… we’re a lazy bunch and we don’t want to read when we can have video. Plus, slides just aren’t the same if you’re not following along with a presenter.

Ever since purchasing SlideShare (for $119 million in 2012), LinkedIn hasn’t put much effort into growing the platform or the user base or changing with the times. We see platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter all making greater shifts toward focusing on video and live streaming.

SlideShare hasn’t kept up. Now, it’s just become a dusty backroom where people can go download slides after a live conference session (where the deck will just become a dusty file on their hard drive).